Film Review
For her fourth feature,
Primaire, free-ranging indie filmmaker Hélène
Angel takes us back into the classroom and offers a lesson in how personal
instincts and professional duties can lead to bitter conflict. Angel
first attracted attention with her idiosyncratic debut feature
Peau d'homme coeur de
bête (1999), and since she has led an exemplary auteur career
tackling social themes that interest her greatly.
Primaire is
her most engaging film to date, and this it owes primarily to the casting
of Sara Forestier in the central role. Since she came to prominence
through her leading part in Abdellatif Kechiche's acclaimed
L'Esquive (2004), Forestier has
become one of France's acting luminaries, a gift for any self-respecting auteur
filmmaker. As the committed primary school teacher in Angel's film
she is never less than convincing and it is a testament to her ability as
a performer that whole swathes of the film have a striking near-documentary
realism - particularly the sequences in the classroom, which have the same
appealing
sur le vif quality of what we find in Nicolas Philibert's
Être et avoir (2002).
Where the film is somewhat less impressive is when Angel tries - somewhat
ineptly - to manoeuvre her film into more conventional drama territory.
The script deficiencies become all too evident when Vincent Elbaz shows up
and practically destroys the film's integrity with what is probably his screen
worst performance to date. Compared with the classroom scenes, where
Forestier's interaction with her lively class of infants is extraordinarily
true to life, there is nothing remotely convincing in the forced romantic
relationship between the teacher and the stand-in father of the neglected
little boy she has taken under her wing.
Primaire feels like
two contrasting approaches to the same subject that have been badly welded
together. Although the sentiment is trowelled on a little too thickly
in parts, it is hard not to engage with Angel's sincerely felt personal tribute
to those remarkable people who devote their lives not only to educating our
children but also instilling in them the values we hold dear. But this
commendable aspect of the film is undermined by the melodramatic contrivances
that are smothered on top, with as much dexterity as someone touching up
an Old Master with a 6-inch paint roller.
Primaire enchants
and disappoints in roughly equal measure.
© James Travers 2017
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Florence is a primary school teacher who is completely devoted to her work.
Her pupils are everything to her, as precious to her as if they were her
own children. She has a particular interest in a little boy named Sacha,
a problem child who is being neglected by his mother. Florence arranges
to meet up with Matthieu, an ex-boyfriend of Sacha's mother, and immediately
establishes an emotional bond with him. As she becomes increasingly
preoccupied with Sacha, the teacher neglects her own son and ends up putting
at risk both her family and her career...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.